Story+2006-06-11+St.+Paul,+MN

´´Good evening, St.Paul....we are glad to be back....here in Minnesota....alright, alright, we´re gonna test the Minnesota vocal cords....right now....oh yes....this is like a, uh....150-year-old Bob Dylan song....come on, Greg....come with me, let´s check out the lay of the land here.....´´
 * 11.06.06 St.Paul, MN, intro to ´´Old Dan Tucker´´**

´´Well done, well done....yes, yes....that´s some damn good Midwestern singing right there (chuckles)....very impressive, alright....this was originally a gospel song called ´Hands On The Plow´....it was rewritten in 1956, as a, by, uh, Alice Wine, a beautiful freedom song.... this is ´Eyes On The Prize´....´´
 * 11.06.06 St.Paul, MN, intro to ´´Eyes On The Prize´´ (following ´´Old Dan Tucker´´)**

´´Yes, yes....alright, this is a song that, uh, I believe the facts are correct but the character portrait may be slightly (array?)(chuckles) and, uh, I was watching ´The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence´ the other night and, uh....there was a great, great article on ´The Searchers´ in today´s Times, it´s worth, worth, worth checking out and uh, ´The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence,´ that´s another great, great Ford-picture and without spoiling it for you, James Stewart didn´t shoot Liberty Valence (chuckles) it was actually John Wayne, that´s right (chuckles) but that, that´s not really screw the picture up, I don´t think (chuckles) but, uh, James Stewart makes his whole career on, on being the man who shot Liberty Valence and in the end he tells the story to a newspaper editor and, uh, at the end of this very long, evolved story where the truth finally comes out, the editor, uh, says ´Well, I´m not gonna print that,´ he says ´This is the West and, uh, when a legend becomes fact, you print the legend,´ so, uh, whoever wrote this one, I think was, uh (chuckles) was ahead of the game on this one, alright, let´s do it....´´
 * 11.06.06 St.Paul, MN, intro to ´´Jesse James´´**

´´Art Baron on the tuba....Richie ´The Boss´ La Bamba on the trombone....Mark ´Love Man´ Pender on the trumpet....Eddie Manion on the saxophone....alright, another outlaw song for you, go ahead, Larry...´´
 * 11.06.06 St.Paul, MN, intro to ´´Johnny 99´´ (following ´´Jesse James´´)**

´´Thank you....thank you very much.....woo, thank you....alright, back in the mid-1800s, uh, goods, goods were brought to market back and forth up and down the Erie Canal, it, uh, was considered the Eighth Wonder of the World at the time, dug by hand, uh....this is, I guess, the best-known Erie Canal song ever been and, uh, as I´ve been telling the audience, one of the, one of what I thought was a few songs ever written dedicated to a mule but uh....I´ve since found out there´s a whole sub-genre of songs that are mule-orientated....a low point of which would be, I suppose ´That Mule, Old Rivers And Me´ by Walter Brennan, though that was the biggest hit (chuckles) but uh....this was originally called ´Low Bridge, Everybody Down,´ ´Erie Canal´....oh yeah, oh yeah, this is the, uh, this is the hootenanny part, you´re gonna get to help us out....(starts the chant)(crowd is pretty quite) I hear little shy Midwesteners (chuckles) let´s try another one (chuckles)(crowd chants) once more (crowd chants) oh, you´re getting warm out there (chuckles)(crowd chants) help them out, Frank.....´´
 * 11.06.06 St.Paul, MN, intro to ´´Erie Canal´´**

´´Thank you....thank you....thank you, mule-lovers....yes, yes....this is a song, it was, uh, written during the Dustbowl by Bill and Agnes Cunningham, I can´t believe it´s only been recorded two other times and, uh....it´s filled with, with toughness and there´s some humour and.... (?) I remember when I was a kid, you´d read about the Dustbowl as sort of the kind of events that you thought, you know, happened in history books and not during your lifetime but, uh, we´ve seen events like that, people ripped up off their homes and sent thousands of miles away with nothing but what they can carry, this is called ´Where is my Oklahoma home? It´s blown away´....´´
 * 11.06.06 St.Paul, MN, intro to ´´My Oklahoma Home´´ (following ´´Erie Canal´´)**

´´Yes, yes....thank you....yes, yes, thank you, that´s Marty Rifkin on the steel guitar....he´s from California, played on the ´Tom Joad´-record and ´Devils & Dust´....there´s a gentleman following me around....been asking for this song....a stalker, I mean a true fan....that´s right (chuckles) I´m gonna do this one for him (someone yells) oh, there´s my stalker (chuckles) I only have one, just one (chuckles)....´´
 * 11.06.06 St.Paul, MN, intro to ´´Long Black Veil´´**

´´This is a song written in the, first published in 1815....they, uh, had to write ´em then, they still gotta write ´em now, it´s a shame....´´
 * 11.06.06 St.Paul, MN, intro to ´´Mrs. McGrath´´**

´´....Frank Bruno on the big bass drum....yeah, our first official job was at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, it was our first official gig....and uh....the story, though, the whole thing´s kind of strange, it begins with Frank´s dad teaching me a few chords on the guitar, that´s Frank Bruno Junior (chuckles) now Frank Bruno Senior was my older cousin and he started off on the accordion and, uh, I, I was this close to being an accordion player, that´s how, that´s how close it was, that was almost my, my (?) and the whole thing would have worked out differently but uh, uh, he switched to guitar briefly at the end of his musical career and he was about sixteen, I guess (chuckles) and I don´t know but one day I was fourteen and he showed me a few chords on the guitar and he sent me home with a folk, folk song book....so many years later I´m meeting some of the fellas in my frontyard (chuckles) and uh....I guess you guys have played (?) out of New York City and we ended up doing our little sessions, ended up with a lot of New Orleans influence and we ended up with our first, our first real paying job in New Orleans at the New Orleans Jazz Festival....and uh....but it´s hard to sort of explain what New Orleans is like right now, it´s, uh, you can´t quite get it from the newspapers or from the television set, it´s, it´s just mile and mile of people´s homes lifted up off their foundations and entire neighbourhoods and sections of the city that´d been emptied out, uh, you know, hundreds of thousands of people sent, sent elsewhere with just whatever they can carry, uh....it´s, uh, it´s not like anything I´ve ever seen, I´ve ever seen, and for a musician, it´s the heart and soul of American music, where everything sort of got mixed up and turned into jazz and blues and rock´n´roll music....and uh....so much of it influences the music that we´re doing tonight, going back Louis Armstrong, Hot Five, and so many great, great New Orleans musicians but, uh, it´s a city that´s gonna need a lot of help for a long time so you should, if you can, keep your eye on what´s going on down there, help folks as much as you can, this was a song called ´How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?´ originally written by a guy named Blind Alfred Reed and I kept his first verse and I wrote three others as we were heading into the city, uh....in honor of our president´s unfortunate visit where he managed to gut the only agency through political cronyism that could help American citizens in times of disaster....but uh....so uh....it´s all in a day´s work, I guess (?)....´´
 * 11.06.06 St.Paul, MN, intro to ´´How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?´´**

´´Yes, yes, yes.....thank you, thank you, this is, we´re all climbing Jacob´s Ladder....Jacob, uh, was in the Bible, he kind of kept screwing up, screwing up, God kept giving him a task after task after task to win his way back into God´s graces.....but he had to work for it.... now, there´s no free ticket to heaven....there´s no car pool lane to the Pearly Gates.....you´ve got to go step by step, mile by mile, inch by inch, hand over hand, choice after choice, we´re all climbing Jacob´s Ladder, that´s right....´´
 * 11.06.06 St.Paul, MN, intro to ´´Jacob´s Ladder´´**

´´Oh yes....and that´s good news....oh yes, oh yes.....yes, yes.....thank you.....oh, this is a song, uh.....this is one of those songs that become such a part of our American life that you can´t imagine, this is one of those few songs you can´t imagine the world without, I guess.... and uh, it was originally a baptist hymn that made its way through the Labor Movement in the ´30s and it was popularized during the Civil Rights´ struggle, it´s still sung all around the world and it´s a song that gets sung so much that people´ve stopped hearing it, I think, and, uh, it gets almost reduced down to....and it´s, uh, but songs like that....that have just found their way into people´s....into the center of human experience, they always hold something at their core that is worth searching for and worth retrieving and trying to understand, this is one of those songs.....´´
 * 11.06.06 St.Paul, MN, intro to ´´We Shall Overcome´´ (following ´´Jacob´s Ladder´´)**

´´´(after some solos on trumpet et cetera) Watch me now....I said I need (chuckles) wait a minute now, we´re doing it different tonight....we´re doing it different, we´re not doing it like we did it the other nights....we´re doing it like we do it in Minnesota....I don´t know how the fuck that is yet....but we´re gonna find out.....(the band stops) that´s right, let me take the temperature of these Minnesotans (crowd cheers) these folks are ready, they´re ready right now, we don´t gotta do that again, horn section, one, two, three, four (the band comes in) that´s right, men, that´s right....alright.... (....)(the band stops, Larry Eagle does a drum solo) I see people still sitting down.....that´s against the Minnesota code of ethics and the teachings of Jesus....one, two, one, two, three, four (the band joins in).... (....)(the song comes to the usual end part) We can´t stop now....we can´t stop now....we can´t stop now....Minnesota....Minnesota....Minnesota....(goes back to singing ´Alright´ with the band)....´´
 * 11.06.06 St.Paul, MN, intro to ´´Open All Night´´**

´´Come on, Charles....they´re looking good, man....they´re looking good....(Charles starts his accordion solo) hold on, kid, hold on, brother....(?) get yourself ready (Charles stops playing) get ready, kid....get ready, that´s right, warm ´em up, warm it up, that´s right, shake ´em out, that´s right, that´s right, here we go, go! (Charles does his accordion solo)....´´
 * 11.06.06 St.Paul, MN, middle of ´´Pay Me My Money Down´´**

´´Thank you....yeah, the, uh, the new guys, they don´t know how to handle the glory yet....it goes to their heads a little bit (?)(chuckles)....oh yeah....oh, we got our friends in the, in the building tonight from Second Harvest, Second Harvest Heartland....they fight hunger, they (?) distribute food to more than 800 grassroots agencies and they directly serve countless families and individuals and children here in the Minnesota area, you see them on your way out, please give them a hand....they´re out there doing a good work and uh....that´s the Second Harvest....´´
 * 11.06.06 St.Paul, MN, intro to ´´Bring ´Em Home´´ (following ´´Pay Me My Money Down´´)**

´´Oh yes....alright this is a, uh, folk song by a young folk song writer named J.R.Robertson ....are we ready, kids?....´´
 * 11.06.06 St.Paul, MN, intro to ´´Rag Mama Rag´´**

´´Thank you, Minnesota....thank you so much....oh yes....thank you, I wanna thank everybody for coming out to the show tonight, thank you so much.....thanks for coming out and sharing our little adventure here....oh yeah....oh yeah....this is a song that, uh, we learned before we went down to New Orleans, this is kind of the theme song of the city so we, we played it with some nervousness but, uh, I was going through my old folkbook I had and I came across a couple of verses that sort of, uh, explained the song to me and it also explained what our project up here is about and uh, uh....and what we´re trying to do up here tonight and, uh, first up I wanna thank all the, these, uh, I´m blessed to have these fabulous musicians come my way (?)....that´s Marty Rifkin on the pedal steel....Charlie Giordano on the accordion and keyboards....Jeremy Chatzky on the bass....Cindy Mizelle, lovely Cindy Mizelle on vocals....the handsome Curtis King, the beautiful Lisa Lowell....(?) Mr.Larry Eagle....the king of rock´n´roll tuba, Mr.Art Baron....the fabulous (?) Clarke Gayton on the trombone.....Richie La Bamba Rosenberg (?)....Mark ´Love Man´ Pender on the trumpet.... Eddie Manion on the saxophone....Frank Bruno on the guitar and the big bass drum, Sam Bardfeld on the fiddle (?)....Greg Liszt on the banjo....the lovely Soozie Tyrell on vocals and the fiddle....the great Marc Antony Thompson on vocals and guitar....yes, yes....so, uh, like I said, this sort of explains part of our journey up here tonight, I hope you enjoyed yourselves, we had a great night, thank you.....´´
 * 11.06.06 St.Paul, MN, intro to ´´When The Saints Go Marching In´´**

´´Thank you very much....thanks a lot....thanks a lot....thanks for coming out....thanks for taking a chance on us (chuckles) alright, we got a song.....we´re gonna send you out dancing tonight....´´
 * 11.06.06 St.Paul, MN, intro to ´´Buffalo Gals´´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//